Neil Lennon believes Odsonne Edouard is happy at Celtic

Neil Lennon has stated that he believes Odsonne Edouard’s happiness is high at Celtic.

The Frenchman has been making a real name for himself this season. He managed to bag a fine goal at Ibrox against Rangers, as well as netting 10 more for the club. On international duty, meanwhile, French Eddy rattled home nine goals in four games.

This has led to the likes of Dino Zoff stating that he’s looking forward to seeing him on Thursday night (Sunday Post). He’s attracting heads from all over Europe, and he’s also been linked with the likes of Napoli and Borussia Dortmund respectively (Daily Mail).

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Odsonne Edouard has started the season on fire (Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images)

But, speaking to Celtic TV, Lenny praised Edouard and claimed that he’s still happy to develop in Glasgow.

“We’ve always had great strikers. Odsonne would certainly come into that category. Currently, he’s probably in the best form of his career, even though it’s still a very short career.

“But you can see the improvements that he’s making in his game in terms of his link-up play, his understanding of the players around him, and the volume of goals he’s scoring as well.

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“I think he deserved the goals (vs County). Great to see him score a header again. He’s still young and still got more to come. We’re just really happy with him and he seems really happy with his form and obviously life here in Glasgow.”

Edouard won’t ever be displaced as Celtic number one

This is exactly the kind of attitude that puts Celtic in a seriously strong place for negotiations. If anyone was to look to take Edouard from us in the near future, they would have to pay an astronomical fee.

Celtic are in a terrific position for negotiations (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

He’s also at the stage now where he won’t ever be displaced as the number one striker. He’s leaps and bounds ahead of both Leigh Griffiths and Vakoun Issouf Bayo. Whilst the former would be best placed to challenge him considering his record at Parkhead, he’s allowed Eddy to race away in front of him this season.

But he also can’t be doing it all on his own. Right now, when Edouard isn’t scoring, we don’t have enough quality as of yet to come on and reliably do a job. Hopefully, that changes when Griff returns from injury, but Bayo needs to now start stepping things up a notch.

We need a reliable replacement to come in when Eddy isn’t firing and look a real threat. We don’t have that, and that’s why nobody will come close to displacing him from Lennon’s best XI.

We’ll be looking for another big performance from Edouard on Thursday night (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Celtic host Lazio and then travel to Pittodrie this weekend. In an ideal world, Celtic could rotate their frontmen for both games so that Edouard could play vs Lazio and then a Griff or Bayo could come in against the Dons.

But there’s a lack of trust in Bayo and a lack of fitness in Griffiths to get the job done. This could mean Eddy has to work both games, which certainly isn’t ideal. However, at least the big man is still enjoying himself and the responsibility he has at Celtic.

David is a keen writer who's always looking to engage readers in his content. He has a strong knowledge of Scottish and English football - writing content on the Scottish game since the beginning of his studies in 2014.